Wizardrone - The Witchfork

Wizardrone is a one man doom project from West Virginia, the man behind this very psychedelic sounding doom is one Jason W. With the huge amount of one man bands that is taking over Myspace these days, its quite often you hear music that is just droning noise with very little artistic appeal. This Wizardrone project has a very DIY sound and production values but listen to the songs themselves and you will hear grooves, riffs and general song arrangements that could easily be turned into classic pieces of doom, psychedelic work. The first track on this is the very weird and wonderful "The Dawn Of Broken Empires". The psychedelic vibe is apparent from the opening seconds of the track and the floating, cosmic vibe of the vocal sound gives the track a hypnotic feeling. While the production is basic at best, the song has a great ethereal spacey vibe. "An Insult To Injury" starts off in a similar vibe to the first track but the slow to faster sections with death / black vocals turned the track into something very much in the sludge metal mold. The buzzing guitar sounds adds to the psychedelic nature of the track but its the up-tempo sections that make this track work. The vocals have a distant sound to increase the psychedelic value even more, this is one of the best tracks on here. "Blood Of The Heretic" has a interesting drum pattern combining rolls and solid beats, not too sure about the vocal arrangement on this track. It doesn't seem to fit too well but once again, the track is full of strong musical ideas. "Loxleigh The Warlocks Apprentice" is one of the strongest tracks, its pure doom in the extreme. Sounding very much in the vein of Electric Wizard, the swirling buzzing guitar sounds keep the hypnotic vibe going throughout the 11 minutes.

"Unredeemed" sounds like a doomed out version of Pink Floyd with the vocals sounding very much like the madman himself "Syd Barrett". Even the arrangement could have easily fitted on one of Syd's solo albums, deranged and bizarre musical textures fill the song. Some of the guitar work is just plain weird but its also very imaginative and the drum work compliments the strange arrangement perfectly. "Elixer Of Doom Heretic II" returns the sound to pure doom, a crawling seething beast of a tune indeed. More fuzz driven sounds are the focus as it swirls as it very slowly gyrates, the twin vocal sounds are very well done. The dude hasn't got a great voice but he makes good use of it in this song. Very psychedelic as all of this album is, you can hear the strong potential of these tracks. The lyrics on the album are also pretty good, very dark tunes of misery and woe in the fine tradition of doom metal. "The Sunrise In Hades" is more "Pink Floydish" sounds but this one has a acoustic guitar and more large insertions of weirdness. Its the shortest track on here and the most mellow, this leads you into the only instrumental track "Twelve Burning Bushes". It is the most drone- like track on the album, building some real tension for its 11 minutes. This album is a real grower and has a truly original sound about it, maybe its the strange vocals i mentioned earlier but this is one of the most unique albums i have heard in the last year. The overall sound might freak some people out, some people might find it annoying but peel back the layers and you will discover some interesting music. Its a little eccentric sounding while staying very psychedelic but the songs are rooted in doom metal. If this was a professional recording, it would slay the doom masses so i am hoping Jason W gets to re-record these tracks in a professional format. I have a feeling he is onto something special, check it out. 7.5/10

www.myspace.com/wizardrone